Identification problems in potential theory (Q1112264)

Let \(\Omega \subset R^ n\) be a domain, \(D\subset \Omega\) a subdomain. Denote by u the electric potential in \(\Omega\) induced by a flux g across \(\partial \Omega: \partial u/\partial \nu =g\), i.e., u is a solution of \(div(a\nabla u)=0\) in \(\Omega\) satisfying \(\int_{\Omega}u=0\). Further, let \(\chi_ 1\) be the characteristic function of \(\Omega\) \(\setminus D\), \(\chi_ 2\) the characteristic function of D, \(a=1\chi_ 1+k\chi_ 2\) \((k>0\), \(k\neq 1)\). If \(\Gamma\) is a portion of \(\partial \Omega\), \(u|_{\Gamma}=f\), the problem considered is to obtain some information on the location of D from the measurements f. The following stability theorem is proved: if \(D_ h\) is a monotone family of domains such that \(D_ h\to D\) if \(h\to 0\), and if one denotes by \(f_ h\) the data on \(\Gamma\) corresponding to \(D_ h\), then \(\liminf_{h\to 0}\int_{\Gamma}(| f_ h-f|)/h>0\) provided \(\liminf_{h\to 0}meas(D_ h\Delta D)>0.\)